War History Network members will appreciate that World War II was fought as much in the factory, the farm and the mine as it was in the battlefield.  “The Arsenal of Democracy” tells the role that the Ford Motor Company played in producing the materials necessary for victory, primarily the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber.  It was not a role that came naturally.  Edsel Ford’s premise that making parts and assembling them into a vehicle was similar whether dealing building automobiles or airplanes was disputed by the aircraft industry.  President Roosevelt foresaw the need for conversion of America’s industrial might to the manufacture of war material.  On the advice of Bernard Baruch he called on William Knudsen, President of General Motors, to undertake the task.  Knudsen turned to the men he knew to produce the weapons required for victory.

This book is the story of the contributions of the Ford Motor Company and, particularly, its president, Edsel Ford.  The conversion was not a smooth one.  Although Edsel was president, the strings were still held by his father, Henry.  In 1940, after Edsel had signed a contract to 9,000 Rolls Royce Merlin Engines for the British, Henry reneged on the deal, arguing that FDR was using the engines to bring the United States into the war and that Ford would build machines for the United States but for no foreign power.  With America’s entry into the War, Ford was All In. 

Ford’s task was to build the Liberator, thousands of them.  It was not a simple matter of converting auto plants.  New plants had to be built, like Willow Run, a huge assembly facility, built in an orchard and L-shaped to fit completely into Republican Wayne County.  Edsel’s promise to build a plane an hour was a long time in fulfillment but it was a promise kept.  There were bumps along the way as gas and tire rationing necessitated housing for the thousands of workers, agents recruited workers locally and throughout the South, labor unrest interrupted production and the mixing of whites and blacks on the assembly line aggravated latent resentments that ignited into a deadly race riot.  Through it all efficiencies improved, prices dropped and Ford’s Liberators participated in raids on Ploesti, support for D-Day and the systematic destruction of German industry.

Nothing was clean in World War II and the Ford Motor Company was no exception to the rule.  Henry was a pacifist and anti-Semite who share a mutual admiration with Adolph Hitler.  Ford was the only American mentioned in “Mein Kampf.  As a recipient of the Grand Cross of The German Eagle, a decoration ordered by the Fuehrer, Ford would always be suspected of Nazi sympathies.  To complicate things further, Ford divisions in Germany and occupied Europe profited mightily from its manufacture of equipment for Nazi forces.  Ford’s hiring of America First spokesman Charles Lindbergh, another suspected Hitler apologist brought more suspicion on the company.

Amidst the rising tide of production were human stories:  Stores of Henry the father who would give his son the company, but could not let go, and Edsel the son who worked to coax his father into new and necessary accommodations to changing times.  Edsel strove to turn his company into an arsenal of democracy even as cancer was eating away his strength and his very life.  His son, Henry II was left to ease his grandfather out of the presidency to which he had returned and eliminate Henry’s minions who threatened to take over the company.

“The Arsenal of Democracy” is a valuable contribution to the understanding of the role of American business in securing the Allied victory in World War II. It is a natural follow-up to Arthur Herman’s “Freedom’s Forge”, which I have also reviewed.  Whereas Herman focuses on William Knudsen and the overall picture, author A. J. Baime narrows his focus to the Ford Motor Company and Edsel in particular.  Whether your interest is American business, the auto industry, Ford or the home front’s contribution to the war effort, “The Arsenal of Democracy’ is a book you should not miss.